It is becoming more and more common to store items such as digital photographs, video files or music files on an electronic device (such as a personal digital entertainment (PDE) device) or a personal computer (PC). Some of the stored files or folders may be personal to the user and not for general viewing. Some users would like to be able to mark certain files or folders as private if another user is using their device or to protect their private content if the device is lost or stolen. The ability to determine which files or folders can be viewed by another user would be advantageous.